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Sunday, November 13, 2016

November 13 2016. Gorgeous
conditions greeted the Masters Runners assembled last Sunday to contest the 5 KM Masters
Championships at the Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida. Runners
who like their cross country races cold, muddy, windy and rainy must have been
disappointed because it had none of those conditions. It was 59 degrees when
the gun for the Women’s race sounded at 8 am under clear skies and 50%
humidity. Mike Nier of the GVH team reported that he had worn 3/8" spikes and thought anything shorter would have been too short.

OVERALL

Women

Sonja Friend-Uhl wasted
no time in going to the front to renew her friendly rivalry with Marisa Sutera Strange. Strange beat
Friend-Uhl by a single second at the 10K Road Championship in April before
Friend-Uhl was sidelined by injury for a few months. When she came back at the
5K Road Championship in early October, Friend-Uhl edged Strange by 8 seconds. In
this race Friend-Uhl was surprised no one went with her, but was feeling good
and decided to keep the pedal down. That strategy worked as she pulled away to
win in 18:12, opening up a half minute margin by the finish. Strange finished in second overall in 18:44. Katherine Wolski pulled away from Trish Butler, Alice Kassens, and Kara Parker to claim third in 19:12.
Friend-Uhl noted that, “I had 3 goals coming into today, to lead my Atlanta
Track Club Women’s 40 and over team to victory, to win the Masters Race, and to
break 18 minutes. I’ll take two out of three!” Friend-Uhl is the 'poster child' for injury rehab this fall. As she noted after her win, "I think feeling strong and powerful again after feeling quite defeated and powerless due to the foot injury this summer was as much a victory for me as the win itself." Her comeback will, no doubt, help to inspire others who are struggling with injury in a long and sometimes disheartening rehab process.

Kristian Blaich, Danny Goodman, Craig Greenslitand Jon Noland, formed a lead pack early in the race. Blaich’s
teammate, Steve Bell, surged to join
them at the 1 mile mark but the 4 pulled away again after 1.5. At the 2-mile
mark, the 4-pack broke up as Goodman and Greenslit fell away and it was just
Noland and Blaich. They crested the final hill about 500 meters from the finish
line.Blaich took a second to recover
and Noland took off at that moment, established a narrow gap but was able to
hold it all the way to the finish line despite Blaich charging hard to close
it. Noland won in 16:23.8, with Blaich less than 2 seconds back in second
place. Goodman ran 16:34 to edge Greenslit for third by two seconds, with Bell
another 15 seconds back.

Women. Prizes were awarded to the
athletes with the top 5 Age-Grading scores. These scores provide a way of
evaluating relative performance across all age groups, with a 100 roughy
equivalent to running as fast as the World’s Best for that age, distance, and
gender. The Athena Track Club’s Marisa Sutera Strange, 53,had the top score with 91.2%. This
marks Strange’s 3rd Age-Grading crown this year, adding the 5 km XC
to her road mastery at the 10K and 1 Mile. Trish
Butler, 54, and Susan ‘Lynn’ Cooke,
57, helped the New Balance Tampa Club make a nice splash by claiming their
first age-grading medals, in 2nd and 3rd with an 89.3 and 87.4.

Men. After an injury induced
absence of a year and a half, Tom
McCormack, 63, came roaring back onto the scene with the top age grade,
92.1%. Second and third for the Men were KristianBlaich, 50,with 89.8 and CraigGreenslit, 46, with 86.2, just ahead of
Eric Stabb, 48, with 85.7, and Hall
of Famer, Doug Bell, 65, with 85.0.

[Note: Age-Grading results not provided by Timing Company. Bill Quinlisk hand calculated them from the Age-Grading Tables and provided the names and scores of the top 5 finishers.]

AGE DIVISIONS

Women 40-44

Alice Kassens was the only one of the
top Overall Racers to come from the 40-44 group. She won handily, with a one
minute gap back to her closest pursuer, the Atlanta Track Club’s Kathy Wiegand Amost another minute back
in third was her Atlanta teammate, Amy Bartholomew-Koepp,
who edged Stephanie Whitis by 20
seconds for the last spot on the podium.

Kassens 19:25.4 Wiegand 20:38.3 Bartholomew-Koepp 21:32.2.

Men
40-44

The first and third place finishers overall, Jon Noland and Danny Goodman, were from this age group, and so took the top two spots in the age group. Tommy Carroll and Brent Fields of the Atlanta Track Club, along with the Checkers AC's Kevin Burke had a dandy race for the third spot. Carroll and Burke eventually pulled away from Fields who finished 5th. Carroll was able to outlast Burke at the finish to claim the bronze medal in 17:02.7, with less than a 3 second margin.

Noland 16:23.8 Goodman 16:34.1 Carroll 17:02.7

Women 45-49

The Overall Champion, Sonja Friend-Uhl, took this age division easily and Kara Parker who could not quite manage an overall podium finish got the Silver age division medal. Atlanta's Susan Welch took the Bronze medal.

Friend-Uhl 18:12 Kara Parker 19:28.6 Susan Welch 25:23.2

Men 45-49

Craig Greenslit who finished just off the Overall podium, took gold in this division in 16:36.1. Atlanta's Steve Bell, who was with the Overall lead pack at 1.5 miles, fell away shortly thereafter but was able to hold off his teammate, Eric Stabb to claim the Silver medal with a 6 second gap. Valentin alvarez and Brad Slavens were in 4th and 5th.

Greenslit 16:36.1 Bell 16:51.1, Stabb 16:57.0

Women 50-54

This was a high-caliber Age Division; the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishers overall came from this race. Marisa Sutera Strange added the Gold Medal from this Age Division to her Gold Medal in Age-Grading and her Silver Medal in the Overall contest. Katherine Wolski took 2nd in the age group with Trish Butler in 3rd place. Only 8 seconds separated Wolski and Butler at the finish line. Kathleen Hayden and Michelle Allen finished 4th and 5th.

Strange 18:43.7 Wolski 19:12.0 Butler 19:20.7

Men 50-54

Kristian Blaich, the second place finisher overall, dominated this division, winning by over a minute, in 16:25.5. Mike Nier of the GVH squad, had a similar experience, pulling away from his teammate, Dale Flanders for a 45 second gap. John Van Kerkhove was 14 seconds back in 4th.

Blaich 16:25.5 Nier 17:45.1 Flanders 18:31.2

Women 55-59

Lynn Cooke, who took 3rd in Age Grading was the 55-59 Champion in 20:27.2, with Margaret Sloan, the runner-up, coming across the finish line 53 seconds later. Sloan, in turn, had a minute lead over Atlanta's Mary Sweeney. Colleen Magnussen and Robin Tanner finished 4th and 5th.Cooke 20:27.2 Sloan21:20.1 Sweeney 22:27.1

Men 55-59

Atlanta's Gary Droze was able to pull away from Alfonso Solano for a 25 second win in this group in 18:04.9. About a minute later, Atalanta's Michael Anderson came across the line in third, with a twenty second margin over TNT's Geoffrey Towell who took 4th.Droze 18:04.9 Solano 18:29.6 Anderson 19:24.3

Women 60-64

This was an all-Atlanta affair. The two Cynthia's, Cynthia Williams and Cynthia Lucking ran tightly together. But at the end, it was Williams who sprinted away with a ten second victory in 24 minutes flat! Their teammate,Terry Ozell was just a minute back in third place.Williams 24:00.0 Lucking 24:10.4 Ozell 25:27.1Men 60-64

Despite there being several strong runners in the field, Age-Grading winner, Tom McCormack blew the race wide open, winning by over a minute in 17:46.7. It was inspiring to see McCormack running so grandly again after a long and difficult rehab. GVH's Gary Radford had another strong race, claiming 2nd in 19:00.4, edging Boulder's Kyle Hubbart by less than 6 seconds. That reversed the order of finish a month earlier at the 5K in Syracuse. Gary Moore was 4th.McCormack 17:46.7 Radford 19:00.4 Hubbart 19:06.1

South Carolina's Catherine Lempesis enjoyed competing in her second national championship of the year. Her first outing at the 5K in Syracuse was quite successful. But in this race, Lempesis ran away from her competitors when the starting horn sounded and she did not stop until she had a handsome victory in 25:22.8. Terry Foody was 7 minutes back in 2nd place, with Susan Burkett in 3rd, another 8 minutes back. Lempesis 25:22.8 Foody 33:06.1 Burkett 41:39.2

Men 65-69

Hall of Famer, Doug Bell sprinted off when the gun sounded and didn't look back. Try as he might, Atlanta's Kirk Larson could not make up enough ground to catch him. Bell won the division race in 19:35.6, with Larson finishing in 2nd a minute back. Larson's teammate, Jerry Learned kept Larson in sight and tried to stay ahead of Boulder's Richard Katz. Learned is a tough competitor and, in the end, was able to claim 3rd, 50 seconds back from Larson, with a half minute gap back to Katz. Roger Price and Michael Reif finished in 4th and 5th.Bell 19:35.6 Larson 20:45.7 Learned 21:35.9

A decorated group of runners toed the line for this division championship.Hall of Famer, Doug Goodhue, is known as the 'Silver Bullet' in part because when the gun goes off he shoots away from the line as if coming out of the barrel of the gun. In this, his first national championship race since injury kept him out of competition for the first 9 months of the year, no one knew what fitness he was bringing to the race. As if to put those worries to rest, Goodhue shot away from the line and built up an early lead as usual. Trying to catch him this time were Boulder's Jan Frisby, 2016 Men's 70-74 Grand Prix Winner, and Shore AC's Przemek Nowicki, the 2nd place finisher in the 2016 Grand Prix. In this race, as so many others, Goodhue sped off at the gun and although he felt in his own mind that he faded a little toward the end, was never caught. He took first in 22:30.4. Frisby kept Nowicki in sight over the first couple of miles and was able to pull up next to him with less than a mile to go. Nowicki pulled back in front on a downhill stretch of 200 meters and then was able to hold the lead to the top of the hard, last hill. From there, Frisby was unable to close the gap all the way. In the end it was Nowicki in 2nd, 18 seconds back from Goodhue and less than 4 seconds ahead of Frisby, who took 3rd. Edward Smith and David Cohen finished just off the podium in 4th and 5th. Hats off to Goodhue's successful return!Goodhue 22:30.4 Nowicki 22:49.0 Frisby 22:52.8

Winners of the Team Bronze Medal for the Ann Arbor Track Club's Men's 70+ Team (l to R: Jon Desenberg, Doug Goodhue, and David Cohen) [FB post]

Women 75-79

Madeline Bost, winner of the 2016 Women's 75-79 Grand Prix, won this race by default.The 100 points from this race puts her in front of this year's Grand Prix competition.

Men 75-79

Had Ron Mastin not been hampered by an injury which has hedl him back much of the year, this might have been an all-Atlanta Track Club affair. As it was, Atlanta's David Turner took first in 25:59.2with his teammate Andrew Sherwood 3 and a half minutes back in 2nd. Four and half minutes later Al Swan, unattached, came across the line in 3rd place. Mastin took 4th despite being slowed by injury.Turner 25:59.2 Sherwood 29:20.1 Swan 34:07.8

Women 80-84Not contested.

Men 80-84

New to the age group, Jim Askew sped around the course in 29:37.2 to claim first. Ann Arbor's Jon Desenberg, undeterred, took the course at a more measured pace to take 2nd place.Askew 29:37.2 Desenberg 35:43.2

TEAMS

It was almost like a home
meet for the Atlanta Track Club.
They came with numbers and quality, taking home 4 of the 7 team titles awarded.

The Genesee Valley Harriers edged
the Boulder Road Runners in a
thrilling upset victory in the Men’s 60 and up division. Shore Athletic Club took the Men’s 70 and up division, while New Balance Tampa, the new women’s team
on the block, took the Women’s 50 and up title.[Note: In XC, Men's 40+ and 50+ teams have 5 scoring runners; there are 3 scoring runners on Women's teams and men's 60+ and up teams.]

Men's 40+. The Atlanta Track Club'sSteve Bell, Eric Stabb, and Tommy Carroll took the top 3 spots in the team race to lead their team to a 'perfect' score victory, 15 to 60 over the TNT International Racing.ATC (S Bell, E Stabb, T Carroll, B Fields, V. Alvarez) 15TNT (Ky Lanier, Ka Lanier, G Towell, S Jones, M Keese) 60

Men's 50+. At Syracuse, Kristian Blaich ran on the 40+ team; for this contest, Atlanta felt they could win the 40+ without him but needed all hands on board to repel the powerful GVH 50+ team, and they were right. Blaich did not disappoint, delivering the Team 1st place ATC was hoping for. But GVH's Mike Nier came in next in 17:45. If GVH could string some finishers together, they could still pull off the win. But next one is was ATC's Gary Droze in 18:05, followed by Dale Flanders of GVH in 18:31. When Flanders's teammate, John Van Kerkhove, came in 14 seconds later in 5th, GVH finally started the string they would need. If GVH could claim two of the next 3 spots, they would be home with a narrow victory. Unfortunately for GVH, things swung in Atalanta's favor at this point as they claimed 6th and 7th with Michael Anderson in 19:24 and Rob Blaskiewicz 7 seconds back. It was not all over at that point but GVH faced a daunting challenge. Their next 4 runners would need to come in before ATC's next runner. Scott Bickham kept GVH's hopes alive with an 8th place finish in 19:41 but ATC's John Kissane sealed the win by finishing 9th in 20:41. ATC's David Alder finished 10th, followed by the Coach, GVH's 5th runner, Michael Reif. Atlanta was the winner over GVH in the closest race of the day, 26-30.

Genesee Valley Harriers members of the Silver Medal Team in the Men's 50 and up Team Competition at the 2016 USATF 5 Km Masters XC Championship in Tallahassee (Mike Nier (white hat), Mike Reif (far right) plus Scott King and John Van Kerkhove} [Photo by Vasan Neovakul]

Women's 50+. Two long-time contenders in the Grand Prix series, the Atlanta Track Club and the Genesee Valley Harriers were going toe-to-toe again but this time they had to worry about a newcomer, the New Balance Tampa team. Established with considerable fanfare this summer, this would be Tampa's first venture as a team in a Cross Country Championship. They got off to a good start with Trish Butler bringing home the 1st team place. But GVH was not just going to roll over; Kathleen Hayden took 2nd less than a minute later. But Tampa showed it was no one-woman show as they took the next two spots with Lynn Cooke in 3rd, 12 seconds back from Hayden and Michelle Allen in 4th, a half minute after Cooke. And that wrapped up their scoring. It was not a perfect score but it was a dominating win as Tampa had 8 points. GVH and ATC would be fighting for 2nd place. It looked like GVH would take 2nd easily as their Carol Bischoff claimed 5th. With 2nd and 4th and ATC's first runner not in yet, things were looking pretty good. Still ATC would not make them fight for it. Sixth and seventh went to ATC's Kris Huff, only 5 seconds back from Bischoff, and Mary Sweeney, less than half a minute back from Huff. GVH's Colleen Magnussen captured 8th place, capping GVH's scoring with a total of 15 and giving them the Silver Team medal. Even if the next runner was Atlanta's that would give them a total of 22. And that is what transpired as Atlanta's Robin Tanner closed off ATC's scoring with 9th place, giving them a 22 point total and the Bronze Team medal.NB Tampa (T Butler L Cooke M Allen) 8GVH (K Hayden C Bischoff C Magnussen) 15ATC (K Huff M Sweeney R Tanner) 22

Men's 60+. Once we realized that Ken Youngers would not be making the trip to Tallahassee, it appeared that Atlanta would not be able to keep up with the Boulder Road Runners and the Genesee Valley Harriers. Everyone expected Atlanta's Tom McCormack to take first but they need another runner who can finish regularly in the top 5 or so. As the stories above make clear, McCormack did not disappoint, taking the Team 1st for Atlanta. But then it was all GVH and Boulder. GVH's Gary Radford continued his run of strong performances as he claimed 2nd in 19:00, six seconds ahead of Boulder's top runner, Kyle Hubbart. Hall of Famer Doug Bell gave Boulder 4th on top of Hubbart's 3rd place. But GVH countered 20 seconds later with Gary Moore in 5th and Mark Rybinski coming across ten seconds later in 6th. That closed off GVH's scoring at 13 and GVH could not catch them. GVH certainly earned this Gold Team Medal! As it turned out, GVH's 4th runner, Bill Beyerbach, was able to edge Boulder's third runner, George Braun, by 6 seconds to drop Boulder another point back. With Braun in 8th, that gave Boulder 15 points and the Silver Team medal. Reliable veterans, Kirk Larson and Jerry Learned, closed off the scoring forAtlanta with their 9th and 10th positions. That gave Atlanta 20 points and the Bronze Team Medal.GVH (G Radford G Moore M Rybinski B Beyerbach) 13BRR (K Hubbart D Bell G Braun) 15ATC (T McCormack K Larson J Learned) 20

Women's 60+. The Atlanta Track Club had this division to itself this year. Cynthia Williams, Cynthia Lucking, and Terry Ozell were the 3 scoring runners for ATC and tallied 6 points for the win.ATC (C Williams C Lucking T Ozell) 6Men's 70+. With Doug Goodhue back leading the Ann Arbor TC team, this promised to be a shootout between Ann Arbor, Atlanta and Shore. Ann arbor's top runner at Syracuse and Tulsa, Paul Carlin suffered a minor setback during training the week after the 15K and did not travel to Tallahassee. That gave the other two teams an opening. Goodhue delivered as usual, coming across first in 22:30. Twenty seconds later, the Shore AC's first runner, Przemek Nowicki, came in to claim 2nd for his team. Things were looking good for Shore when their 2nd runner, Ed Smith, came across the line a couple of minutes later in 3rd place. But 5 seconds later, Ann Arbor's David Cohen claimed 4th. That gave both Ann Arbor and Shore 5 points. Because of Carlin's absence, Jon Desenberg, 82 would be Ann Arbor's 3rd scoring runner. It would be a lot to expect of Desenberg to place highly. Shore felt confident at the time that their 3rd runner, JL Seymore, would have his usual day and come in close to Smith. Unfortunately Seymore was having a bad day; his old knee injury was acting up. In any case, Atlanta's A and B teams took 5th through 9th with Frank White, Morris Williams, Charlie Patterson, David Turner and William Shaffer getting the job done. Seymore battled his injury to finish 10th and give Shore the final points they needed for the win at 15 points. Two more Atlanta TC runners crossed the line before Desenberg came across in 13th to give Ann Arbor its 3rd scoring runner and a total of 18 points. At this point there was some confusion because, at first it looked like Atlanta's A team had 5+6+8 for 19 points, as Patterson had originally been listed for the 'B' team and Turner for the 'A' team. The switch, complete within the rules, was apparently made onsite the day before the race. As a result, both Ann Arbor and Atlanta wound up tied at 18 points. At this point there is more confusion. The tie-breaking rule up through 2016 had been that yo compare the 1st runner for each team head-to-head and the second runner head to head and so on through all of the scoring runners. By that rule, the finishing order would have been Ann Arbor 2nd and Atlanta 3rd. However, the rule had been changed in 2015 because, apparently, in some Junior USATF XC Championships there are 4 runners on each team and the 'old' rule could not resolve the tie. The 'new' rule always resolves ties but is less intuitive. The rule established in 2015 was that you take the final scoring runner for each time. The one who finishes fastest/highest (closest to the front) gives the win to his/her team*. By the new rule, which is the one that had to be applied, Atlanta finishes 2nd and Ann Arbor third.Shore AC (P Nowicki E Smith JL Seymore) 15ATC (F White M Williams C Patterson) 18AATC (D Goodhue D Cohen J Desenberg) 18*[Note: I have suggested to Bill Quinlisk and Bill Roe that, at the next available opportunity we reinstate the old rule as the main rule with the 'new' rule only applied in instances where the 'old' rule fails to break a tie. That way , in the vast majority of cases, we would be using a more intuitive tie-breaker. They were favorably inclined but noted that the next opportunity will not come until 2018. In the meantime, the new rule will be used. ]

------------------------SPECIAL
FEATURES

Overall
Team Age-Grading Winners (in the USATF 5 Km XC Championship)

(Rules—Top
3 runners for each complete scoring team, across age groups, in age-grading
tables, score by place not %; all declared runners can displace)—Only runners
on complete teams counted. Lower scores are better.

Shore AC finished 4th and TNT International 5th.Note: In the absence of a complete set of Age-Grading results from the Timing Company, I assigned Age-Grading places by feeding time, age, and gender into the WMA Age-Grading calculator.WOMEN

AGE-GRADING Individual GRAND PRIX(for
the Masters Grand Prix Circuit)Recall
that those who finish in the top 5 overall age-grading positions in the race
earn points--10-6-4-2-1Before the USATF Masters 5Km XC Championship in Tallahassee FL, the
standings were:

***************************************************The first National Masters Cross Country Championship of the year is in the books. Congratulations to all of our overall, age grading, age division and team champions-well done!

Next up---the Club Cross Country Championship in Tallahassee FL on the same course. Women will run a 6 km course, Men 60 and over an 8K course, and Men 40-59 a 10K course, same as the Open Championship. The date is Saturday, December 10.